The Sri Lanka Election Commission on Friday began accepting nomination papers for candidates intending to contest for the April 8 general election to elect a new parliament.<br/><br/>After the week-long process, the papers would be scrutinized and election would be held to for 225 seats in the Parliament. Of this total, 196 will be voted while the remaining 29 will be appointed from the National List provided by registered parties on the proportional representation basis.<br/><br/>According to the Election Commission officials the independent groups have already began placing their deposits and till Friday nine independent groups had given their deposits.<br/><br/>Officials in the Election Commission further said that it would deploy 300,000 Public Servants for election duty in the forthcoming general election. Two hundred and fifty thousand public servants were engaged in election duty during the Presidential Election.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, in a letter addressed to the President the Tamil United Liberation Front leader, V.Anandasangaree has said that if the government is really serious about restoring democracy at all levels in the North and the East, it should take action, well ahead of the last day for submission of nominations for the forth coming parliamentary elections, to withdraw all arms from the persons or groups who are not legally authorized to posses arms.<br/><br/>This he said will not only restore the credibility of the Government who has stakes at least in the North and East of the country but will also provide an opportunity to the voters to exercise their franchise in amore democratic manner.